Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order Review

by Benjamin Shapiro, GGR Editor and Contributor

My name is Ben Shapiro and I’m a born-again Star Wars fan. This is due in no small part to The Mandalorian, an homage to various films and styles that takes place within the Star Wars Universe and a video game which I received for Christmas and played all the way through in short order, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

In Fallen Order you play as Cal Kestis, a Jedi in hiding on a scrapper planet shortly after the Clone Wars, turning downed ships into parts to feed The Empire’s war machine. Soon after you begin, Cal is found out and his adventure begins. I don’t want to get into too much detail as the twists and turns are fun, but you and a ragtag group travel around the galaxy in search of a device to rebuild the Jedi Order. There are a total of four planets to explore, each one is a pleasure to see. The graphics are outstanding, making it feel oftentimes as if you are actually in a Star Wars film. There are Star Destroyers, creature cute and scary, and huge set pieces to play around in. The presentation here is top notch with a very polished feel that many of the EA Star Wars games seem to be missing. Speaking of EA, notably absent are loot boxes and items to spend real money on. This is a complete game, which luckily goes against the company’s current “games as service” philosophy. This means you aren’t trapped behind a paywall to get all of the information pertinent to the story.

And that story is fun to watch unfold, too.

It is both epic and intimate at the same time, telling each character’s story to completion, this includes the main antagonist that is referred to as Second Sister, an Imperial Inquisitor. As is par for the course with Star Wars at this point, the characters have secret connections to one another that come out through the course of the story and feed into the grander narrative. It is as fun to watch as it is to play.

And the characters themselves are intriguing and enjoyable as well. Greez is the pilot of The Mantis, a lovable and gruff four armed alien who talks like he’s from the Bronx. Cere is a former Jedi that has cut herself off from The Force after past trauma. Cal is great as an everyman, learning how to be a Jedi again after he found himself cut off from The Force after watching his master die. These are all well rounded characters and their arcs are both believable and complete. By the end, you care for these people, which is not at all common in video games.

Now for the gameplay. It’s fun. Oh so fun. But challenging as heck. I started the game on Jedi Knight difficulty and played through the first two planets that way. The combat is very difficult and reminiscent of Bloodborne or Dark Souls on this difficulty level. And I will readily admit, I’m not the type of gamer that looks for a challenge like that. Hell, I returned Bloodborne after two days because there was no way I would ever have the patience to “git gud,” as Souls games players like to say. That said, I got about halfway through the third planet and the bad guys started to become too difficult for me, so I turned the difficulty down and that’s the exact moment I started enjoying the game.

You will feel like a Jedi once you start learning your powers. You’ll be wielding a dual-bladed lightsaber and tossing it around the screen to kill groups of stormtroopers, tossing bad guys this way and that, jumping all over the screen and deflecting blaster fire back at the shooters. It is exactly how I wanted the game to make me feel and it was frigging epic. And by the end, when you have all of your powers maxed out, you begin to feel invincible.

There are also parkour elements to the game that are reminiscent of Prince of Persia. You can wall climb, force jump, swing on ropes, climb, etc. And all of these skills come in handy for the games many platforming sections. In fact, I’d say this is one of my complaints: the game focuses too much on platforming at times, which kind of brings the pace of the game to a grinding halt. This becomes especially evident late in the game when, because of the lack of a fast travel system, you find yourself traversing the same sections over and over and over looking for secrets and skill points to level up Cal. It can get old fast, but then the story and boss fights kick in and, well it’s worth it.

Final thoughts? Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is definitely worth a purchase. It’s fun, has a good story, and makes you feel like a Jedi. What more can you ask from a Star Wars game?

Benjamin Shapiro is a screenwriter, playwright, and poet. He has won awards for horror, comedy, and drama for both stage and screen. He is also a filmmaker and the founder of Trash Messiah Pictures.